What is replantation

Replantation is the reattachment of a completely detached body part. Fingers and thumbs are the most common but the ear, scalp, nose, face, arm and penis have all been replanted. Generally replantation involves restoring blood flow through arteries and veins, restoring the bony skeleton and connecting tendons and nerves as required.

Initially, when the techniques were developed to make replantation possible, success was defined in terms of a survival of the amputated part alone. However, as more experience was gained in this field, surgeons specialising in replantation began to understand that survival of the amputated piece was not enough to ensure success of the replant. Functional demands of the amputated specimen are paramount in guiding which amputated pieces should and should not be replanted. Additional concerns about the patients ability to tolerate the long rehabilitation process that is necessary after replantation both on physical and psychological levels also became important. So, when fingers are amputated, for instance, a replantation surgeon must seriously consider the contribution of the finger to the overall function of the hand.

In this way, every attempt will be made to salvage an amputated thumb, since a great deal of hand function is dependent on the thumb, while an index finger or small finger may not be replanted, depending on the individual needs of the patient and the ability of the patient to tolerate a long surgery and a long course of rehabilitation.

However, if an amputated specimen is not able to be replanted to its original location entirely, this does not mean that the specimen is unreplantable. In fact, replantation surgeons have learned that only a piece or a portion may be necessary to obtain a functional result, or especially in the case of multiply amputated fingers, a finger or fingers may be transposed to a more useful location to obtain a more functional result.